Something just popped into my mind.  A few weeks ago when Barack Obama spoke at a rally in my city, the local paper interviewed random people on the streets to get their opinion.  One woman's comment made my brain shit itself.  The gist of her comment was "I don't vote because I don't think either candidate is right. The American people are responsible for change, not politicians."

Let me translate that for you.  What she really meant was "I don't get enough attention, so I'm going to spout off some anti-political sentiments in the hopes that nobody will spot the logical fallacy and consider me to be an intelligent radical free-thinker."

Now obviously, I must elaborate on what I mean by "logical fallacy".  A logical fallacy is when your logic is fucking retarded.  Here's the point she's missing: Regardless of whether or not she agrees with the candidates, one of them IS GOING TO BE ELECTED.  Don't like McCain?  Fine.  Don't like Obama?  OK.  But if you truly believe change has to come from the people, how does sitting on your ass and NOT DOING ANYTHING address the problem?  The people vote for a president, and the president leads us.  Part of the individual citizen's ability to evoke change is in their right to vote.  You can vote for anybody, but only two candidates have a chance at winning here.  It's either going to be McCain, or Obama.  (Yes you can vote for a third-party candidate, but given the state of things it'd effectively be a wasted vote.  No third party candidate will match even a fraction of Obama's or McCain's support.)

Nobody--especially politicians--is perfect.  If you're looking for a saint, join a church.  Size up what each candidate stands for, create a list of pros and cons for each, and vote for the candidate who most agrees with the same things you agree with.  One of the two candidates is going to be elected, and we as Americans have a responsibility to voice our opinions about who we think the better of the two candidates is.  It doesn't matter if you agree with one or the other, just vote for the one you think can do the job better than the other guy.  That's the point--one of them is GOING to win, no matter what.  Do your part, and make sure the best man wins.  Anybody who says "Oh, neither one is better than the other." is just fooling themselves.  Do your homework.  Each candidate represents such a broad range of values that if you dig deep enough, you will find you prefer one over the other.

I don't give a shit who you vote for.  Just get your ass out there and vote.